E. Sreedharan, Delhi Metro

Every once in a while, messianic style, there rises a man from the catacombs of babucracy who dispels the gloom, shakes the dust off the files in the grey almirahs, and sets off to work so brimming with purpose that we realise things can actually get done in India. The contrast with the ambient sloth is so stark and the effect on the dispirited public so electrifying that the man starts believing in his halo. Seshan, Khairnar, Kejriwalâ€¦itâ€™s a small but illuminating list. E. Sreedharan would have been there tooâ€”except that eulÂ­ogies sit lightly on him and even now, at 84, he would rather simply set off to work.